Ulster Unionists alone in standing up for people of NI

The wide-ranging attacks on the Ulster Unionist Party for failing to back the devolution of justice prior to improvements in the functioning of the Executive are an example of the complete loss of morals that now typifies the “Peace Process”. People who are prepared to lecture the world about the need for democracy and fairness seem strangely blind to it in Northern Ireland.

I have always been a passionate supporter of power-sharing devolution and of the transfer of as many powers as possible to functioning devolved structures in Northern Ireland. The problem, correctly identified by the Ulster Unionists and well known to most people in Northern Ireland, is that the devolved structures are not functioning.

It is therefore nothing short of disgraceful that the Labour government and all the other parties have bought into an attempt to add more storeys to the building without checking the foundations. Labour itself has resorted to bribes of public money and dodgy opinion polls. The SDLP threw out any chance of influence when it said it would back a deal before it had even been done. The Alliance Party produced the excellent “Agenda for Democracy” document in 2004, advocating reform of the institutions, but is now shouting at the Ulster Unionists for taking the very same position six years on. People may be used to the lack of scruples from the DUP and Sinn Fein, but for other parties to forget about them too is alarming.

Ultimately, this is not about maintaining Stormont for Stormont’s sake. It is certainly not about continuing to create a system which leaves only the DUP and Sinn Féin on top. It is about ensuring that people in Northern Ireland have the same basic democratic rights taken for granted elsewhere in the UK and Ireland – and thus making sure that parents have an education system they can understand and support; patients have a Health Service that is properly funded; and people see reform of administrative structures so that public services are delivered more efficiently. Without those, the electorate will lose all remaining faith in their political structures, with the inevitable dangerous consequences.

The task, therefore, is to deliver institutions which work, and which are seen to deliver real improvements in education, health and transport. While others seem intent on worrying primarily about the needs of Shaun Woodward and Hillary Clinton, we should be grateful that at least one party has remembered the needs of the people of Northern Ireland. While others merely want more devolution, at least one party has remembered the need for better devolution.

It is not the Ulster Unionist Party which should come in for scrutiny, but rather those seeking to railroad through a deal which appears to do nothing to improve the institutions and improve the way they work for the people they are supposed to represent. It is time someone stood up for the fundamentals of democracy, before we forget about it altogether. Plainly, that will not happen under our current part-time Secretary of State.

The choice at the coming election will therefore be clear: we can vote for parties intent on leaving a desperate Labour government in power whose only aim is to bribe the people of Northern Ireland into accepting a form of “democracy” led by the DUP and Sinn Fein which does not work; or we can vote for Conservatives and Unionists whose sole focus is the people of Northern Ireland and ensuring they get a form of democracy which does work, alongside influence at every level of government. Nothing less than the future of our education system, our health service and our democratic structures depends on the outcome – that is why this must be a year for change.